The
public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your letter of
October the 20th had given me ominous foreboding. Tried myself in the school of
affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human
heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are
suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have taught me that for ills
so immeasurable, time and silence are the only medicine. I will not,
therefore, by useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor,
although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more where
words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both, that the term is not
very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same cerement, our sorrows and
suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the
friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love and never lose
again. God bless you and support you under your heavy affliction
-Letter
from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams on the death of Abigail Adams
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